It is difficult but not impossible to boost EV sales in the US
The Impact of the EPA Clean Air Quality Regulations on the Auto Industry: Will it Fail or Will It Fail to Remediate Climate Change?
The overarching goal is not just cleaner cars, but the transformation of the auto industry: The EPA would essentially impose regulatory penalties on companies that do not move quickly enough toward electric cars.
The rules, which are currently in draft form pending public comments, apply to automobiles sold between 2027 and 2032. Compared to the standard, they reduce average emissions from new passenger vehicles by more than half. Will the proposal succeed or what impact it will have on climate change?
“We’re going to envision and innovate and achieve this future together,” he said during a call with reporters. It is well within our grasp. Make no mistake about it.”
Margo Oge, a former EPA official and the chair of the board of the International Council on Clean Transportation, called the regulations “the single most important regulatory initiative by the Biden administration … to really reduce the worst impacts of climate change.”
“The administration is going to make history — if indeed, at the end of the day, they finalize these ambitious standards,” she said in a press conference arranged by the Environmental Defense Fund, an advocacy group.
The EPA’s Role in Reducing Electricity, Gas Stations, and Electricity-Limited Batteries: Implications for Electricity and Fuel Economy
Medium-duty vehicles like delivery trucks and heavy-duty vehicles like tractor-trailers would be required to meet standards under new rules proposed by the EPA. By 2032, 50% of buses and 25% of tractor trailers will be electric,according to the EPA.
They are separate from the federal government’s fuel economy rules, which are expected soon. These are not the same as the zero-emission vehicle mandates adopted in California and other states.
Instead, it sets a standard for emissions, on average, based on the size and type of vehicle being built. The agency says those new rules are so stringent that it believes companies will need to produce 67% zero-emission vehicles to meet them.
It’s not clear if the world can build enough batteries fast enough to satisfy existing production plans, and if so, if the world can mine enough minerals.
Different timelines for when companies might go electric and different estimates of when the US will have two-thirds electric are what makes them different.
But drivers would overall save money because EVs are cheaper to operate, the EPA’s analysis found. Car buyers may also benefit from tax credits of up to $7,500.
The auto industry was offered a lot of carrots by the Biden administration in order to get them to go electric.
Charging infrastructure needs to be built out, as well as the power generation to supply those chargers. Drivers — huge swathes of them, not just a small percentage of enthusiasts or the particularly eco-conscious — would need to embrace a shift away from gas stations and towards chargers.
The proposed regulations will be open for comment, and car makers will likely be very vocal about expressing what they consider they can actually achieve over the next decade.
The proposed rules are likely to be unpopular. Republican states, led by Texas, have already sued the EPA over the current version of these vehicle standards, arguing that the body overstepped its authority in crafting those rules with an eye to EV adoption.
The Alliance for automotive innovation, the trade group for major car manufacturers, supports the EPA’s right to set those standards.
Fast charging will be easier and owners will enjoy a reduction in their operating costs as a result of increased driving ranges. Moody’s Heck predicted that next-generation EV batteries expected in the next few years will go 30% further on a charge and will recharge 30% faster.
California plans to allow the sale of only fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles by 2035, a goal it’s on the way to meeting, according to Corey Cantor, an analyst with Bloomberg NEF. So California should be at over 80% market share for plug-in vehicles, including plug-in hybrids, by 2032 and California itself, through its sheer size, is a big factor in the overall US vehicle market.
“Not everyone is willing to jump ship just because it’s an EV or it has X-Y-Z piece of technology,” said Drury. ” I think that when you have something like Toyota, definitely a loyal consumer base, they don’t want anything other than Toyotas.”
The Alliance for automotive innovation posted a statement on their website that asked for help from government agencies in order to reach their goals.
A lot has to be done for the change in the automotive market and industrial base to succeed according to the group.
Automakers have complained that those new rules make it hard to build EVs that qualify for tax credits right now. The White House hopes that new mining, battery and manufacturing projects in the US will lead to a global car industry that will be driven by the US and not China.
Congress passed an infrastructure bill in the year of 2021, and also passed an inflation reduction act in the year of 2022, which will funnel federal money intocharging infrastructure and tax credits for consumers and manufacturers of automobiles or batteries.
Lithium and cobalt are needed to manufacture modern batteries, and the Biden administration is encouraging companies to purchase these and other materials through countries that have free trade agreements with the US. The administration is also encouraging domestic manufacturing in order to secure supply chains and dial back dependence on China. Only tax credits that can be used for manufacturing of batteries and vehicles in the United States are available. But so far, there are no obvious showstoppers when it comes to supplies of crucial minerals for electric-car batteries, according to the energy consultancy BloombergNEF.
The nations can theoretically provide sufficient supplies, according to an energy-storage analyst. She warns that it will be important for the United States to strengthen its international partnerships since demand from Europe and other regions will rise.